This
is the latest issue of “Holistic Vision”, the spiritual
project by the author and consciousness researcher Floco Tausin.
It is devoted to a phenomenon known as idiopathic or harmless
“eye floaters” or “muscae volitantes”
(see
pictures) among ophthalmologists. We see them
as scattered, mobile, transparent dots and strings in our visual
field. “Holistic Vision” includes ophthalmology but
questions its conclusion on floaters and goes beyond. For the
observation and open eye meditation reveals a connection between
altered states of consciousness and the way floaters look. Furthermore,
a look at different cultures highlights floaters as an object
of art and spirituality. By this “holistic vision”,
Floco Tausin pursues the question whether these spheres and strings
are first appearances of a shining structure of consciousness
within which we cover a distance to our spiritual origin –
a path that lights up through open eye meditation.

Lights from the Other World.
Floater structures in the visual arts of modern and present-day shamans

This
article is based on the assumption that prehistoric shamanic rituals include
the perception, interpretation and depiction of what we today call “eye
floaters”
(muscae volitantes). It is suggested that, together with other
shamanic symbols, floaters continue to be experienced and depicted in
later shamanic societies up to the present day. The present article
supports this thesis from the examples of modern Siberian and contemporary
Tukano shamans. A closer look at their visual arts reveals geometric structures
and characteristics that are typical of eye floaters.

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Readers’ Hints, Experiences,
and Pictures

“There are more things in heaven and earth …”

No floaters, but
a whole bunch of different subjective visual phenomena, as seen by reader
Karen. Floco comments from a physiological and spiritual perspective.

Karen: “I was diagnosed during an exam for eyeglasses
as having floaters about 2 years ago. I am 62 years old. I am not always
aware of them and yet I do have several direct experiences that I wanted
to share with you…”

Floco:
Dear Karen, your list of such phenomena is a wonderful example
that “there are more things in heaven and earth, then are dreamt
of in your philosophy”, as Shakespeare’s Hamlet tells his
friend Horatio after having seen his dead father’s spirit. While
the only person who may give a definitive meaning to your phenomena
is you, I’ll gladly comment on them from my experience and knowledge,
as far as possible:

K: “Three:
When in the shower and sometimes in bed if I close my eyes and touch
them with my hands, my vision becomes a shade of blue or green rather
than plain black.”

F: We
could call that one ‘mechanically (by pressure) induced phosphenes’.
Physiology tells us that it is generated by retinal neurons’ randomly
firing. It may have a holistic significance if we understand the induction
of phosphenes (mechanical, electrical, magnetic stimulation) as a way
to temporarily intensify our consciousness state or energy flow respectively.
Phosphenes, then, are the visual expression of energetic fields, generated
by this intensified flow of energy.

K: “Four:
When I meditate after a while I see a pulsating purple ring with a green
center. After some more time I begin to see pulsating gold and occasionally
gold lines that form to resemble human faces or animals.”

F: I guess
you see that with your eyes closed? I'd say it’s again phosphenes,
but this time induced by extending inner light, love, silence. Neurologically
speaking, through meditation you increase neuronal activity which becomes
evident in phosphenes lighting up. Spiritually speaking, you increase
your inner light which becomes evident in your field of vision.

K: “Five:
When I close my eyes in the dark at times I see pinpoints of light before
things fade out, occasionally with a blue dot as well.”

F: Possibly
a mixture of so-called after-images – representing visual memories
of objects, fading out after a while – and phosphenes. From a
seer’s point of view, after-images are not entirely generated
by inner light (as they need outer light stimuli), but they may nevertheless
be a vehicle to explore the ‘inner screen’, as they are
between waking and dream state.

K: “Six:
In the sunlight sometimes my visual field becomes a big orange dot.
Other times the dot will change colors that seem to match the chakras.”

F: Outer
and inner light may dye our visual field in different colors. I’m
aware of the interesting link of these colors to chakras, but did not
go into detail until now. Fact is that there are different systems of
subtle energy centers in the human body. If you see different colors
that you manage to attribute to different consciousness states, I suggest
that you create your own ‘chakra’-system.

K: “Seven:
Sometimes in meditation or when meditating I see black wiggly lines
that seem to be little insects like ants or worms. Occasionally they
form into an animated cartoon such as a scene in Egypt or something
else like a farm.”

F: Like
point four, it’s probably phosphenes. They seem to be in between
the crystal clear floater lights and visual dreams. Dreams seem to be
born out of inner visual light; light is transformed into thoughts and
images by our consciousness in a certain state; in other states, we
may be able to perceive the light directly, as colored phosphenes, or
as bright floater dots.

K: “Eight:
When I look at trees I see light around their tops that seems to move
like energy.”

F: A phenomena
of phosphene-like after-images. Or, more spiritually, it‘s the
trees’ auras. During my time of learning with my mentor seer Nestor,
I focused a lot on after-images to practice visual attention towards
inner light phenomena. To me – and without the intention to reduce
auras to physiology – aura seeing includes processes of after-images.

K: “Nine:
Occasionally I will see a small band of light around a person or a column
of light coming up from their crown especially if they channel I can
see or sense they are being overshadowed by a being of Christ consciousness
(the only ones I invite in for channeling).”

F: Physiologically,
it might be some phosphene / after-image / aura phenomenon. To people
interested in aura seeing, it will definitely have some spiritual meaning
which I'm not familiar with.

K: “Ten:
On a few occasions I saw a face with emerald green features appear above
someone’s head who was having a vivid emotional response.”

F: Same
as no. 9.

K: “Eleven:
Once I brought a candle into a dark bathroom. After a few minutes of
gazing at my face in the mirror it seemed to change shapes and looks
[sic].”

F: A well-known
creepy effect. Physiologically, I think it’s after-images that
blur your face. To me, it’s a nice experience that shows that
it’s not a solid world we live in.

Thanks again for sharing
your phenomena!-- Floco

Nestor's
Knowledge on Eye Floaters

The layers of consciousness

Eye floaters
and their meaning were interpreted differently depending on the time,
culture and personality of the observer. We learn a spiritually meaningful
perspective about floaters from Nestor, the seer, with whom I have studied
and whose teachings I recorded in the book „Mouches volantes
– Eye Floaters as Shining Structure of Consciousness“.
In this category, a particular statement from the book on floaters shall
be presented and explained.

“»For you, this cup is always
at the same distance from you. You could sit here for a lifetime
and stare at this cup – it would always appear to be at
the same distance from you. That’s the case because your
consciousness is very stable within a certain layer. This stability
is something enforced on every one of us – through education,
impartment of values, viewpoints and ways of thinking. Thanks
to this stability, we are perceiving all objects in the picture
always at the same distance. And that’s why we always see
the same section of the structure as well, with the dots and strands
more or less always in the same positions and with the same size.«”

Nestor explains
the idea that the distance of objects in the ‘picture’ (the
visual field) is a question of consciousness. Individual consciousness
is understood as something that becomes active on different “layers
of consciousness” in the shining structure. As the glance
of a reader wanders through the pages of a book and catches a part of
the complete work on every page, so consciousness wanders through the
layers of the shining structure and catches different aspects of the picture.

The concrete nature of
these layers remain vague. They cannot directly be seen. Their existence
becomes obvious, for example, by experiencing the phenomena of ‘light
jumps’. This is the observation that shining structure floaters
and the objects of the material world seem to abruptly move nearer in
intense consciousness states. Floaters and objects look bigger in size
and more intense in light and color. The process is interpreted by the
seers as inner light activating – or jumping to – a closer
layer of consciousness. At the same time, the seers understand this as
an inner or spiritual forward movement on the path in this shining structure.

What
prevents us from realization of the multi-layeredness of consciousness
and the walking on that path is our stability on a particular layer. The
reason for that is a lack of energy. Much of our energy is bound in psychic
qualities and material objects as a result of upbringing, education and
lifestyle. According to the seers, we become able to free ourselves from
being tied to one particular layer by raising our “inner pressure”
or inner intensity respectively, and let it freely flow into the picture
as a whole.

The
category "Quarterly Picture" introduces realistic, artistic
and/or spiritual/religious representations from different cultures
and times which could show entoptic phenomena, or be inspired by it.

Tim Stevenson
is a floater sufferer from the US who took the time to observe and
draw what he actually sees. He sent me that picture to raise public
awareness of suffering from floaters. There are a lot of people reading
and posting in floater talk web-forums who see the same kind of floaters
drawn by Tim (see picture). These floaters are also the ones
I’m writing about, the “shining structure floaters”,
as I call them to better distinguish them from other floater types.

Shining
structure floaters by Tim Stevenson.

Tim
had his eyes examined by an optometrist and a retinal specialist.
Both stated that there was nothing wrong with his eyes and that they
could see the “harmless debris” in the vitreous. Tim is
reluctant to believe that the examiners actually could see the floaters
– and I second that feeling. In my opinion, the examiners may
have seen some debris, but hardly the hundreds of spheres and strands
Tim actually sees and draws in great detail. Tim’s explanation
of his floaters stems from the floater talk forums where this type
of floaters is called “clear worms” or “crystal
worms”. It is explained as “very close to the retina or
in the premacular bursa region”. The premacular bursa, a space
located between the vitreous and the retina, is brought forward by
a few laser surgeons who are specialized in laser treatment on eye
floaters. They use it to speculate about the whereabouts of those
crystal floaters they actually can’t see and treat. The premacular
bursa explanation is not recognized by the majority of ophthalmologists.

While these
floaters talk forum members and laser surgeons do not recognize and
acknowledge the cultural, artistical and spiritual dimensions of the
shining structure floaters, some of them, like Tim, do a good and
important job to carefully observe and distinguish the different types
of floaters – some of which are indeed vitreous opacities and
may be treated by laser surgery or vitrectomy. In Tim’s case,
his “ring shape floater” may actually be some debris in
the vitreous, as he describes it as “very dense”, as “shadow
floating in almost all lighting conditions” and as “causing
me all the problems. I can't ignore it due to the darkness, size,
and movement of the floater.” In any case, close observation
is the first step to recognize the deeper meaning of floaters. And
that may be, at least, a coping strategy for those suffering from
shining structure floaters.

Thanks
Tim, for that picture. May your eyes be well, may your floaters light
up.

You will find
this and other pictures in the gallery.
Do you have drawings of eye floaters or other entoptic phenomena (flying
corpuscles, afterimages etc.)? Do you know of realistic, artistic
and religious representations of such appearances? Then send
me the picture or give me the tip; I would like to publish
it in the newsletter and/or in the gallery.

You’ll
find a complete list with all previous publications in German
and English (monographs, anthologies, magazines) at Website.
These articles are also available in the member
area.

In
the Eye of Ra – Floater Structures in the Visual Arts of
Ancient Egypt
In Western culture, the phenomenon of vitreous floaters (or muscae
volitantes) is primarily understood in line with modern ophthalmology
as "vitreous opacities". The review of visual arts from
former and non-Western cultures representing mythical and spiritual
ideas, however, discloses abstract symbols that resemble the typical
structures of eye floaters. This suggests that floaters have been
widely interpreted as a mythical or spiritual phenomenon; and
that there might be a perceptual dimension of floaters that modern
ophthalmology fails to see. This article provides a trip to the
visual worlds of Pharaonic Egypt and suggests that vitreous floaters
have found their way into the art and imagination of this ancient
civilization.

Goose
Bumps: Phenomenon of Spirituality and Body-Mind Cleansing?
Many of us experience that prickly feeling with our body hair
standing on end and our skin in goose bumps at various times.
This is often associated with chills, shivers and certain emotional
states. Less known, however, is that this prickle is informative
and effective in the fields of health care and spirituality. This
is suggested by both medical studies and the experience of spiritual
masters from various cultures.

In-depth
observations on eye floaters – a challenge to ophthalmology
For centuries, scholars try to find an explanation for the mobile,
scattered and transparent spheres and strings in our visual field.
Early on in ophthalmological tradition, the origin was thought
to be in the eye. The phenomenon was considered a disorder or
degeneration somewhere between cornea and retina. Today, eye floaters
are believed to be an opacity of the vitreous. However, careful
observation of floaters reveals properties that challenge this
dominant view and call for a reconsideration of the ophthalmological
explanation.

„Hair
standing on end“. Prickle feelings in spirituality and holistic
medicine
Many of us experience that prickle feeling with the body hair
standing on end and the skin looking like “goose bumps”
time and again. It is usually associated or identified with chills,
shiver and certain emotional states. Less known, however, is that
this prickle is informative and effective in the fields of health
care and spirituality. This is suggested by both medical studies
and the experience of spiritual masters of different cultures.